The Gold Coast Titans have had a disastrous campaign. There are no two ways about it.
The wooden spoon seemed to be in their destiny eight weeks out from the end of the season, and while they avoided the dreaded ‘prize’, it’s not exactly much of a consolation for a team who were a rabble more often than they weren’t throughout 2025.
With Des Hasler now gone and Josh Hannay preparing to take over with multiple questions over the roster going forward, as well as the style of play they are going to dish up, the Titans will need to do plenty of soul-searching before they head into the 2026 pre-season all guns blazing.
Zero Tackle will unpack every team’s season, looking at the six talking points which defined the campaign and will shape the questions heading into the next one.
Today, the Titans.
Off-field contract circus continues to cause havoc
Anyone trying to suggest the off-field circus regarding both the coach and the players off-contract didn’t impact the Titans throughout 2025 is having an absolute laugh.
It’s not the first season that has been hit for six by contract negotiations and speculation at the Titans either, and once again, it focused far too heavily on Tino Fa’asuamaleaui and David Fifita.
Fifita now seems an almost certainty to depart the Titans prior to the start of the 2026 season, while Fa’asuamaleaui is going to hit the open market from November 1 and it would be a shock to see him stay on any longer.
The Gold Coast also have issues around Jayden Campbell, and who is going to play fullback moving forward. AJ Brimson and Keano Kini might be locked up long-term, but that doesn’t stop the speculation.
The bottom line is for the club to be successful, they need to leave these issues in the rear-view mirror, and that could mean some of their biggest stars departing.
The on-field performances in 2025 were diabolical at times, but these issues certainly played a role.
What is the Titans’ best spine?
We touched on it above, but it’s clear Hasler wasn’t clear on who his best spine was throughout 2025.
Jayden Campbell seems to have become the halfback for the club, but the jury is still out on whether that might actually work long-term.
Injuries didn’t help either, but AJ Brimson is one of the best fullbacks in the competition. He proved as much when Keano Kini was out, and yet, at full strength, didn’t line up in the number one jumper.
Josh Hannay’s first big call is picking a spine for 2026 and sticking to it.
The question is whether the roster balance is too far away from where it should be for him to have a functioning spine, and get the most out of players spending time out of position.
Why Des Hasler had to go – but the board could be next
Des Hasler was signed in an undercover coup that no one knew was coming, but two and a bit years later, it looks like one of the more dramatic failures of the NRL era.
Two absolutely wasted seasons, all to punt Justin Holbrook who, without injuries, looked as if he was starting to get the Titans on the right page. There was a long way to go, but the change of coach has actively sent the Titans into reverse – not exactly the direction you want a footy club to be going under a new coach with new ideas.
The bottom line is that he could not hang around for another season based on the way things were going for the Gold Coast both on and off the field.
But that doesn’t mean he is the only one to blame.
This will be a playing group under pressure in 2025, but it’s also a board under pressure. The Titans have moved on a number of coaches, and yet nothing has changed on the field. Their playing group have questions, their recruitment has questions, and so to does the coaching.
At some point, attention has to turn to the front office and the way things are being managed.
Josh Hannay’s biggest challenge will be the defence
There is absolutely zero doubt the Titans can attack.
They finished the year with a remarkable record on that front despite finishing second last on the table.
When you have names like AJ Brimson and Jayden Campbell running around, it’s hardly going to come as a surprise either. The Gold Coast have plenty of weapons.
What they don’t have – and we will touch further on this in the next point – is defensive resolve.
Josh Hannay essentially needs to build the club from the ground up if he wants to turn them around. He comes out of a Sharks system where defence is priority number one, so he certainly has the tools to do it, but getting the playing group on board will be a challenge.
Why the writing was on the wall by Magic Round
Really, the Titans should have known changes were needed by the time the competition rolled into Brisbane for rugby league’s annual magic round party.
The fact they had conceded scores of 40, 36, 38, 30 and 50 in their five (out of seven) losses to that point proved beyond all reasonable doubt that things were going sideways quickly for the blue and gold.
The loss to the North Queensland Cowboys in Townsville the week before Magic Round – the game where they conceded 50 – was particularly embarrassing. Defensively, the Titans were all at sea and the playing group looked as if they didn’t want to be there.
Back-to-back losses against the Dolphins and Dragons (36 and 38 points conceded) should also have painted a picture about where the club was. The Dolphins went on to become the NRL’s best attacking side in 2025, but that wasn’t the case then. The Dragons struggled all year to score big point totals.
The fact those losses came on the back of two straight wins indicated something was off at the Titans, but changes didn’t come, things stayed the status quo, and ultimately, Hasler paid for it with his job.
How much can the Titans realistically improve in 2026?
A new coach certainly brings new hope for a footy club who have struggled for much of their existence in the NRL, but expecting an instant turnaround would be a fool’s game.
The thing is, the Titans have enough talent to be a successful club.
Their forwards are among the best in the game, with Fa’asuamaleaui and Moeaki Fotuaika leading the way, while there is talent in the spine.
That was evident at points throughout 2025 when points came in their bunches, rather than in dribs and drabs as they did at the Newcastle Knights for example.
The Titans certainly should not be a wooden spoon side.
The top eight may look like a pipe dream from the outside looking in, but internally, that must be the expectation in 2026.